Just 18% of Mobile Users Back up their Mobile Phone Data but 47% have Lost a Phone, Reveals New Research by CelleBrite

Published 16th February 2010

Mobile operators missing out on opportunity as users willing to pay for back-up service

Petah Tikva, Israel, February 16, 2010 – Independent research amongst 1,000 mobile users in the UK commissioned by CelleBrite, the leading provider of cell phone synchronization and management systems, revealed that mobile operators, mobile retailers and device manufacturers are missing an important opportunity to increase user loyalty and increase revenue and ARPU by failing to effectively market a mobile data back-up solution to users at the point of sale.

The research, amongst 1,000 mobile users revealed that just 18% of users back up their mobile data in spite of the fact that 47% of us have already lost a mobile phone. The research also revealed that 47% of users were unaware of services offered by network operators in store to back-up and synchronize mobile data and 48% of those expressed willingness to pay somewhere between £5 and £20 extra and wait up to 10 minutes to receive such a service.

Another significant finding was that only a minority of users (16%) change handsets more than once a year. 25% of respondents admitted that the difficulty in transferring mobile data dissuades them from upgrading to a new phone. The survey also revealed that 27% of users would change handsets more regularly if they could transfer their mobile content onto the new phone at the point of sale.

The 47% of us who have lost our phones admit that recompiling the lost contacts and mobile data such as photos, music, text messages and videos can take up to six months and 24% admit that they never manage to fully recapture the lost data.

Yossi Carmil, Co-CEO of CelleBrite comments, “Lost contact information will negatively impact on mobile usage and so indirectly affect not only the users, but also the operators themselves. Operators and device manufacturers need to grasp the mettle and educate and encourage users to back-up their data by offering it as a type of mobile data insurance policy as part of their customer insurance package offered at the point of sale.”

Further interesting findings included the fact that contacts and content are equally important to users. Some variations exist in terms of gender and age regarding the relative importance of content versus contacts: with 44% of respondents claiming that contacts were more important than mobile content and 38% rating content more important than contacts. Women were more likely to favour mobile content (47%) like photos, videos and music over content (39%) and men more likely to value contacts (48%) over content (30%).

Survey respondents not only expressed an interest in the getting their mobile data transferred to their new phone and backed-up at the point of sale, but were also willing to wait anything up to 20 minutes.

Commenting on the overall findings Mr Carmil added, “What is clear from this survey is that operators, retailers and device manufacturers are missing a trick in not providing a mobile data back-up and synchronization service that is valued by their users, alongside their standard device and service packages. In doing so, they can, not only differentiate their service offering, but also generate additional revenue and present it as a type of mobile data insurance plan.”




ABOUT CELLEBRITE

CelleBrite provides the tools, technology and talent to, transfer, backup and synchronize mobile device-generated data with proven solutions — wherever needed. As the leading provider of cell phone synchronization and management systems for carrier-grade point of sale (POS), CelleBrite’s solutions stay a step ahead of the latest technology by partnering with and serving more than 140 of the world’s premier carriers and retail chains, including T-Mobile, Orange, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and Telstra. Our customers rely on CelleBrite synchronization solutions to provide invaluable market information, superior service level, and the added value that allows them to remain market leaders in a highly competitive industry.

CelleBrite’s UFED (Universal Forensic Extraction Device) solutions enable government and law enforcement agencies worldwide with forensic cell phone data extraction capabilities that are unparalleled. Supporting the largest library of handsets, in addition to being easy to use, highly reliable and secure, the UFED solution is one of law enforcements most effective tools solving and prosecuting criminal activity.
Established in 1999 by industry experts, CelleBrite is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sun Corporation, a listed Japanese company (6736/JQ). For more information, please visit www.cellebrite.com